Indian foodtech unicorn Swiggy, after having scaled up its grocery delivery service Swiggy Stores earlier this year, has now launched InstaMart, a delivery service for groceries and other household items. 

“Through Instamart, we want to introduce the convenience grocery category in India. With the fastest deliveries in the segment (30 – 45 minutes), day and night serviceability (7 am – 12 midnight), a wide assortment across categories such as instant meals, snacks, ice creams, beverages, fruits and vegetables, Instamart will address the unmet grocery needs of the time-pressed, convenience-seeking urban consumer,” a Swiggy spokesperson told Inc42. 

The company is currently testing the feature in Gurgaon, where it can be accessed through the ‘Instamart’ tile within the Swiggy app. 

“We are currently testing Swiggy Instamart to see how it augments our consumer promise of enabling unparalleled convenience by making grocery delivery more instant and delightful.”

While Swiggy already operates ‘Swiggy Stores’, it’s hyperlocal delivery service for groceries and other essentials, InstaMart will see the company operate a chain of ‘dark’ stores to service consumer demand. You can read more about the advent of dark stores and future prospects in India Inc42 ‘‘The Hyperlocal Conundrum: Kiranas Vs Dark Stores In India’s Retail Market Post-Covid’ report.

India’s Online Grocery Delivery Sector

The launch of InstaMart comes after the launch of JioMart, Reliance’s online grocery store which has been launched in 200 cities across the country. JioMart’s facility of free deliveries on all orders, irrespective of the order amount, is expected to give tough competition to the existing players in the ecommerce segment such as Flipkart and Amazon, who are also looking to tap into the demand for grocery delivery services amid the pandemic. The JioMart mobile application, which was launched on the Google Play Store on July 19, has now garnered more than 1 Mn downloads. 

Meanwhile, both BigBasket and Grofers witnessed a surge in demand and sales during the lockdown. While BigBasket reported a 35% increase in sales in April, Grofers registered a 60% increase in its gross merchandise value (GMV), compared to pre-Covid-19 levels. 

Challenges With Grocery Delivery

However, there are a few challenges inherent in the online grocery delivery model. The commissions in the grocery delivery space aren’t as attractive as compared to what food delivery startups such as Zomato get with the delivery of cooked food. The low order value also makes it very difficult for hyperlocal delivery players to actually make anything substantial out of it. Other problems include stock management as most of the retailers often don’t update the stock while taking orders.

Zomato, which entered the online grocery delivery space in April with the launch of ‘Zomato Market’, wrapped up the business just two months later. This despite the company’s COO of food delivery Mohit Sardana telling Inc42 in April that the company had all the factors in place to sustain the new business model. “Grocery delivery has always been on our long term radar since it fits into our vision of ‘better food for more people’. Given the current need of our customers, we quickly sprung into action to serve,” Sardana had said. 

According to sources quoted by The Ken, Zomato decided to shut down the grocery business after finding that the business was not scalable. As food orders had dwindled during the lockdown, grocery seemed to be the way out for Zomato. 

US-based market research company Forrester Research has noted that India’s online grocery market could make $3 Bn in sales this year, representing a whopping 76% hike compared to $1.7 Bn last year. The research firm has attributed this growth to the demand for fresh produce and staples during the nation-wide lockdown.

The post Swiggy Pilots ‘InstaMart’ To Offer Instant Delivery Of Groceries appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The patient or healthcare data in India is fragmented to the point that Indian healthtech startups in advanced specialisations, management systems and data analytics almost always have to look at overseas markets for business. In order to streamline this, majority of the industry experts and healthcare professionals suggested for a policy level change or initiative such as National Health Stack (NHS), a shared digital infrastructure, which would essentially facilitate collection of comprehensive healthcare data across the country and have a bigger impact on healthtech landscape, similar to other India Stack, including Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, digital banking and account aggregator which has transformed fintech, digital payments and commerce to a large extent in the country.

Already in progress, last month, Niti Aayog launched a blueprint of NHS, which is expected to provide foundational components that will be required across ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and other healthcare programmes in the country. This initiative is said to provide a mechanism through which every user participating in the system can be uniquely identified.  

In line with this, the healthtech giant GE Healthcare through its state-of-the-art startup initiative Edison[X], which was launched in late 2019, has been working on integrating data, workflows and generation of insights from these data streams in a hospital setting, which is said to address the data fragmentation problem at a primary level across the country. 

The company told Inc42 that its Edison[X] programme was built on two things —  learning how to collaborate with an upcoming startup such that everybody benefits from the partnership, and building a culture, a structure, and a process, to provide that one can design for innovation and that this can be a repeatable exercise that anyone in the ecosystem can follow, particularly focusing on the point of care and precision medicine landscape in India. 

Citing the example of automated analysis of radiology images, which was introduced in its Cohort 1 of Edison programme, Dileep Mangsuli, CTO, GE Healthcare, South Asia, said that it took some of the workload off of the resources that were most stretched, particularly the specialist doctors, which reduced bandwidth for them to see more patients in a day, thereby making specialised attention more accessible and affordable. 

For instance, GE Healthcare’s Edison[X] backed startup DeepTek, which provides AI-assisted smart reporting on lung X-rays to expedite the diagnosis of various ailments — the sign-off from a certified radiologist was built into the workflow. Similarly, another startup, Orbo, which works on image enhancement, when applied to radiology, allowed the processing of radiology images to be done on a generic tablet, which is much cheaper than a specialised device. In other words, this brought down the overall cost of treatment, significantly.   

The Multiplier Effect In Healthtech

In June 2020, GE Healthcare completed its first cohort, where it ensured to successfully integrate startups’ solutions with its Edison platform. “We will continue to work with the Cohort 1 startups even after the Demo Day and we are in the midst of putting together an alumni programme that enables startups to continue working with GE Healthcare and provide access to high-quality advice from technical and business mentors,” Mangsuli pointed out, highlighting the enduring relationship with the selected startups.  

The selected startups in the Cohort 1 of Edison[X] programme include 5C Network, DeepTek, Orbo, Predible Health and Synapsica. 5C Network and Predible Health were among the healthtech startups selected in Inc42’s startup watchlist for 2020. 

Covid-19 will push many of these startups to steeper growth trajectories, but there has already been robust growth, according to Mangsuli. Within one year of its launch, DeepTek witnessed $1 Mn in revenue in February 2020. The company raised $1 Mn in funding from a group of investors led by Green House Ventures (GHV) in May 2020. Last month, it signed a Letter of Intent with the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise (CIIE) at Savitribai Phule Pune University to collaborate on Covid-19 related research. 

Another GE Healthcare-backed startup Synapsica was selected in Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 cohort, which saw record participation of Indian startups. In April 2020, computer vision and machine learning startup Orbo was acquired by a US-based AI research startup Gemia Inc. 

Edison[X] Startups Pivot For Covid-19

During the course of Cohort 1, GE Healthcare said that two of the startups collaborated to build a solution to speed up the Covid-19 testing process. Predible Health, which provides AI-assisted structured reporting on lung CT images, collaborated with 5C Network, which has a teleradiology platform, to build an automated workflow to diagnose Covid-19. The company claimed that this solution brought the turnaround time for diagnosis down drastically. 

Similarly, Synapsica, which was refining a solution for Spine MRIs, pivoted and used its expertise to build a solution to scan lung X-Ray images and diagnose Covid-19. 

DeepTek, on the other hand, has built an end-to-end tool to scan X-Ray and CT scans and report findings, and also issue alters to ensure faster contact tracing and testing. Further, it developed a model for community spread of the disease which is key to developing focused strategies to localise and arrest spread. 

Coming to the post-Covid reality, GE Healthcare said that the digital-first approach taken by the startups selected in Cohort 1 has helped them become more relevant during the current slowdown. “While they are not immune to the recession in the markets, as we adjust to the new normal and virtual hospitals and telemedicine become more widely accepted, these startups are best placed to plug into the healthcare system and start serving patients, said Mangsuli. 

Finding Synergies With GE’s Partners 

Besides nurturing the healthcare startups in the country and working with them to create healthcare solutions using GE’s state-of-the-art platform and decades of expertise, Mangsuli told Inc42 that Edison[X] is not about tapping the opportunity of the current market and a point-in-time exercise but a journey of collaboration.

“Our stated objective has been to explore sustainable partnerships with our cohort members wherever possible. Each of these startups are working in areas that are extremely relevant to GE and our customers. These solutions are complementary to our offerings and address significant healthcare challenges that exist today.”

Through Edison[X], the startups continue to work with GE Healthcare. It’s not just about accelerating product development. GE Healthcare is in talks with strategic customers to deploy pilots.  It also supports innovation by providing technical inputs to startups from senior scientists accessible, and helping startups reach the market through GE Healthcare’s large network. Both these inputs together help reduce the go-to-market time. 

The Edision[X] programme allows GE also to reach new markets in conjunction with the startups, adjacent to existing GE Healthcare offerings. In addition to this, Mangsuli told Inc42 that GE also looks to offer its existing customers the choice of partnering with the startups to take their solutions to market and offer them an opportunity to scale up quickly. In a way, the company believes that this adds value for GE Healthcare, its customers and startups, which is a win-win situation for all involved. 

The New Face Of Healthtech

Currently, GE Healthcare is gearing up for Cohort 2, which will be announced in September. It claims to have received 150 applications for the second batch. “The selection process will involve multiple rounds of discussions with candidates and internal deliberation by technical and business leadership to assess the startups on the quality of their solution and their fit with the programme mandate,” the CTO said. 

With its Cohort 2, GE Healthcare said that it will be expanding the use-cases to include non-clinical use-cases such as data-workflow integration, data management, demand-supply forecasting and automated patient scheduling, workload/workflow simulations, equipment usage insights among others. Again, these are areas that Indian healthcare desperately needs innovation in. 

Apart from access to 1:1 technical mentoring and validation of their solution, startups will also gain access to Edison resources to deploy their solutions on the Edison platform. “There is also a $10K equity-free cash grant that is paid to each startup that is part of the cohort,” added Mangsuli. 

Optimistic about the future of healthtech in India, Mangsuli believes that in the next two-three years, it will be adding 20-25 startups as part of this vibrant ecosystem, together addressing critical healthcare challenges. “Over a longer-term, we would like to explore collaborations with other ecosystem players such as late-stage startups, industry bodies, academia, etc. through highly customised yet structured programmes,” added Mangsuli.

GE and Edison will be looking to scale it up to address more use-cases and critical healthcare challenges, identifying scope to leverage collaborations with other ecosystem players, and expanding to other geographies. 

The post As Healthtech Comes Under Spotlight, GE’s Edison [X] Accelerator Looks To Take Indian Startups Global appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Democratising credit in India is the need of the hour as for reviving the economy and kick-start consumption. Large volumes of credit are usually directed towards large companies, whereas smaller companies and micro-enterprises are left in the lurch with little or no access to credit at all. This is a huge concern for the next growth phase of the industry” — Nandan Nilekani

Last month, when the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) was introduced to fix credit access for small and medium businesses, it was seen as the next revolution for India’s fintech industry after Aadhaar, UPI, and Account Aggregator network. The idea is simple — make credit available for the smallest business for any amount at a minimal interest rate and for short tenures. 

The OCEN has three major stakeholders— marketplaces, loan service providers (LSPs) and technology providers. While lending startups and NBFCs and have queued up to become LSPs among the technology-focussed startups is Rupifi, which is hoping to form a bridge between aggregator-marketplaces and lenders. 

This Bengaluru-based startup was launched in 2020 by Qbera cofounder Anubhav Jain with Ankit Singh and Jawaid Iqbal. The idea was to cater to the credit needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

Having built a consumer lending product with Qbera (acquired by InCred in 2020), Jain told Inc42 that he has always been interested in the SME segment. “I learnt about OCEN about two years back when the idea was under discussion. I was already interested in SME lending space, so this prompted further push to launch Rupifi. iSpirt was looking to democratise lending by standardising the whole lending flow between a borrower and lender,” he said.

OCEN: How It Changes The Lending Game

The Open Credit Enablement Network is a new paradigm for the credit industry that seeks to provide a common language and platform for lenders and marketplaces to build innovative, financial credit products at scale. It recognises that the touchpoints for delivering financial products to individuals and MSMEs extend beyond traditional lenders. Service providers can become a tech-enabled credit marketplace and thanks to its open-source nature, OCEN will allow anyone to effectively create plugins for lending capabilities into its existing products or services, and become an LSP. More than anything, the OCEN removes the barrier for lenders. 

CredAll is helping OCEN framework as a collective, like an Account Aggregator framework collective managed by Sahamati. It will also allow applicants to leverage different data sources so that lending can become a Cash flow-based operation instead of the existing balance sheet focus. Here, the space for technology service providers opens up. 

Ankit Singh, a volunteer with iSpirt, leading the project told Inc42 that version 1 of OCEN is already in the public domain and is looking for feedback from participants. A marketplace or lender can start implementing on own or tie-up with tech service providers, he explained.

Currently, there are two projects in the pilot stage – Sahay GST and Sahay GeM (Government e-Marketplace). Sahay – GeM as a Loan Service Provider gives new financing avenues to its Seller MSMEs and drives inclusiveness of small businesses. On Sahay GST, the businesses using GSTN are being allowed to take credit on the basis of their turnover and profile data on GST.

He also explained that the first idea of Loan service providers came in RBI UK Sinha MSME committee report which mentioned the idea of loan service providers. Further, currently, 15-20 entities are looking to be TSP on OCEN.

Rupifi: Built On Foundation Of OCEN

Rupifi’s Jain emphasised that Indian consumers have multiple options when it comes to credit — from a high-ticket to low-ticket value loan with larger as well as smaller lenders. But in terms of SME lending, the higher cost of underwriting comes up because of multiple offline processes such as bank verifications, audits, physical KYC and more.

Hence, SME lenders could reach only larger businesses which fulfil these requirements with ease and also to limit the acquisition cost. Here Jain found the market gap, and building on OCEN, focussed on developing a lending platform for SMEs, but on the basis of cash flow and fulfil working capital requirements.

“We want to solve the problem by reducing the costs of SME lending from the cost of origination to underwriting, which should be low so that process is digital as well,” Rupifi’s Jain explained.

Rupifi: B2B Strategy, Working Capital Focus And More

The company is, therefore, charging 1.25%-2.5% per month as interest with the target of fulfilling working capital in a time period of 30-60 days. Leveraging a B2B approach, Rupifi offers its product to marketplaces, which benefits it in three ways—the cost of acquisition is low, data to be used for underwriting, and collections can happen automatically.

“We knew the costs of marketing and more are high and therefore, we opted for a partnership route to work with aggregators and marketplaces. If we have to give loans to ecommerce sellers or restaurants, we can acquire customers at a cheap price,” he added.

The company began with its product launch in July, after signing up with restaurant and kirana aggregator platforms. Within the first month, Jain said the company has enabled INR 50 Lakh worth loans. “In the kirana segment, collections are 100% already,” he added.

In August, Rupifi onboarded larger ecommerce and foodtech platforms. In September, it is looking to launch with a large B2B pharma aggregator and kiranas as well. Overall with these clients, Rupifi has 1 Mn SMEs available for lending. 

In terms of the monetisation, one obvious route for Rupifi is the interest on the loans. But further, these partnerships with marketplace follow either revenue-sharing or risk-sharing or subvention model and bring another source of revenue for the company. Jain says the model of the partnership depends on how seriously that platform looks at credit for the customer. 

“As we build on OCEN, there will be transaction revenue, as every transaction that goes through us, we can charge marketplace, per loan charge. We will then become enabler between lender and borrower.”

Over the current FY2021, Rupifi is focused on getting more partners across sectors. The plan is to get 10K customers for the same by March 2021. The key focus areas are food, pharma, retail, ecommerce, and logistics. The startup is also looking to build credit scores specific to each sector and will scale the ledning in each accordingly. Currently, the company’s first product “Pay Later by Rupifi” is live and the plan is to scale it further. “We want to focus on end-use controlled or end-use defined loan, where we know where the loan is being spent so that the lending can be further improved,” he added. 

The post Will Xoogler-Backed Rupifi Ride India’s OCEN Wave To Change The SME Credit Game? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Amid growing competition in the online grocery delivery space after the entry of new players such as JioMart, Grofers is reported to have tied up with more than 600 new regional and local consumer goods brands. The new tie-ups have effectively doubled the number of sellers on the platform, part of the store’s strategy to offer significantly higher discounts to its customers. 

Grofers will offer 20-50% discounts during the nine-day sale period, at least 15% higher than it did in its previous sale. “We have onboarded these brands that are at least 20% cheaper than leading brands even after discounts because that is our biggest pitch during grocery sales,” Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder of Grofers, told Economic Times. 

During the lockdown, Grofers registered a 60% increase in its gross merchandise value (GMV), compared to pre-Covid-19 levels. Moreover, the company claims to have seen a 40% increase in basket size during the lockdown. 

India’s Online Grocery Delivery Space Heating Up In Lockdown

To tap into the demand for on-demand delivery of groceries and other household essentials, ecommerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon have also entered the space. Flipkart is setting up a chain of ‘dark’ stores for its hyperlocal service ‘Flipkart Quick’ to allow the customers to get their deliveries within two hours of ordering. For the first phase, Flipkart will be facilitating the sales of 2,000 products across several categories — grocery, fresh, dairy, meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items and home accessories. It will also be onboarding neighbourhood or kirana stores onto its network, the company had announced.

Similarly, in April, Amazon pumped in INR 284 Cr into Amazon Retail, which delivers groceries and other household items on the online marketplace. With rising demand and competition, the players in the sector are consistently trying to distinguish themselves from their competitors. With Flipkart Quick, the company promised delivery of items within two hours of placing orders. Now Swiggy, with the launch of InstaMart, has promised delivery of items within 30-45 minutes of placing orders. Similarly, JioMart, which launched its mobile application last month and has since garnered more than 1 Mn downloads on the Google Play Store, is trying to lure customers with a zero delivery charge on all orders, irrespective of the amount. 

US-based market research company Forrester Research has noted that India’s online grocery market could make $3 Bn in sales this year, representing a whopping 76% hike compared to $1.7 Bn last year. The research firm has attributed this growth to the demand for fresh produce and staples during the nation-wide lockdown.

Grofers Had A Profitable Lockdown

Grofers’ plans for trumping its competition have also been afoot for some time now. Inc42 reported in April that the online grocery store was looking to invest $50 Mn to strengthen its supply chain and private label category over the next two years. Of the total amount for 2020, Grofers has set aside $15 Mn for private labels as the company believes that it could contribute over 60% of its business during the current surge and subsequently up to $50 million to grow both its supply chain and private label business, over the next two years. 

These investments will also be used to enable better distribution of Grofers’ private label — to enable more stores with its products — as well as to partner with more kiranas to streamline its delivery process. In December last year, Grofers cofounder Saurabh Kumar told Inc42, “We are aggressively growing our business and aiming to clock $1 Bn in revenue by the end of 2019 with a significant focus on our in-house brands in 2019. Our G-brands contribute 40% to our current revenue, and we plan to increase it to 60% in the coming years.”

According to an Economic Times report, Grofers generates nearly half of its INR 2,000 Cr annual sales from its private brands and labels. 

The Covid-19 lockdown-induced surge in business has meant that Grofers has also advanced its plans for issuing an initial public offering (IPO), with the company now planning to go public by the end of 2021. 

The company, which had initially planned to go public in 2022, expects to turn profitable this financial year. Grofers’ cofounder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa told PTI that the company has already turned operationally profitable in January 2020, and is on track to become EBITDA and cash positive by the end of this year.

The post Grofers Partners With 600 New Brands To Offer More Discounts appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In more resistance to India’s data protection regulations for non-personal data, US-India Business Council (USIBC), part of the US Chamber of Commerce, has raised its concerns around the sharing of proprietary data by Google, Facebook, Amazon and other US-based technology giants.

USIBC’s draft letter, as seen by Reuters, has called India’s imposed data sharing an “anathema” to promote competition. It further said that this undermines investments made by companies to process and collect such information.

The letter comes in the context of the plan of the Indian government to regulate “non-personal” data recorded by tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google among others. In July, a government-appointed panel had recommended setting up a regulator for information that is anonymised or devoid of personal details but critical for companies to build their businesses. 

It also proposed a mechanism for firms to share data with other entities, including competitors, which would spur the digital ecosystem. The report, if adopted by the government, will form the basis of a new law to regulate such data. The Indian panel has listed research, national security and policymaking among purposes for which such data should be shared. 

However, this hasn’t gone down well with the USIBC. The group has categorically opposed mandates that require the sharing of proprietary data. “It will also be tantamount to confiscation of investors’ assets and undermine intellectual property protections,” the letter read.

The head of the panel, Kris Gopalakrishnan, founder of Infosys, reportedly said the group will work with the government to review inputs from the industry.

It has been highlighted that “forced data sharing” will limit foreign trade and investment in developing countries, and the panel’s proposals run against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s calls for US companies to invest in India.

The lobby group also raised concerns about the panel’s recommendation to mandate local storage for non-personal data, describing this as a “dramatic tightening” of India’s international data transfer regime.

“These are far-reaching concepts that would have a significant impact on the ability of both Indian and multinational firms to do business in India,” law firm Covington & Burling reportedly said in a note prepared for the USIBC.

The post Amazon, Facebook, Google Oppose India’s Mandates To Regulate Non-Personal Data appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based hospitality giant OYO’s troubles with disgruntled hotel partners over unpaid dues continues to rage on, even as the company claims to have recovered to some extent from the Covid-19 impact. In the latest turn of events, a contempt of court petition has been filed against the company, OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal and directors Rakesh Kumar and Anuj Tejpal in the Delhi high court for not allegedly complying with the instructions of the court in the previous hearing.

On July 7 2020, the HC had told the SoftBank-backed hospitality unicorn to file a list of its debt-free or unencumbered assets within two weeks in a case filed against OYO by hospitality company Anam Datsec, which runs hotel properties in Goa and other states. But the petitioner alleges that the documents filed by OYO do not contain the full information.

Anam Datsec had alleged that OYO is withholding dues for its Golden Sands property in Goa and had sought over INR 8 Cr in damages. As per the court’s ruling, OYO had to submit a list of unencumbered or debt-free assets, to understand the extent to which supposed non-payment of dues has gone on. “We received the reply a few days ago, but the list was missing. When we reached out to them over emails, they went unanswered. So, we moved the petition in the court today,” Akash Nangia, director of Anam Datsec, and founder of startups Techjockey.com and SISL Infotech, was quoted as saying in ET.

In response, an OYO spokesperson reportedly said that the court did not issue any notice to the company or its directors and that OYO has submitted all the required information in a sealed cover and therefore, there is no case of contempt of court

After the previous hearing in July, a OYO spokesperson had said, “The Delhi High Court has permitted the concerned OYO entity’s affidavit of assets to be kept in a sealed cover by the Registry of Delhi High Court, which is also a basis statement made by OYO itself on its own financial standings….During the hearing on 07 July 2020, OYO has already shown the Court pictures demonstrating the transformation of the hotel property on account of the construction carried out by OYO to substantiate that the case of the Petitioner is not made out. In any event, OYO has also submitted to the Court that the dispute may be resolved amicably between the Parties or through Arbitral Forum as agreed between the Parties in the Contract signed by them,” the spokesperson added.

In a legal notice issued on May 15, as seen by Inc42, Anam Datsec claimed that OYO had agreed to pay INR 14 Lakh per month as the minimum guaranteed amount when it entered into a management services agreement with the company for the property in 2018. It said OYO did not also provide necessary and accurate revenue statements and carried out “substandard and hazardous construction” on the property.

The complaint also noted that as per the master service agreement (MSA), the hotel was liable only to bear the costs towards additional rooms but the construction costs were to be handled by OYO. It also alleged that OYO failed to construct a lift and swimming pool for the hotel for over 1.5 years.

Anam Datsec had demanded INR 84,68,436 towards minimum guarantee, INR 2,24,355 towards interest and penalty to statutory authorities, INR 2 Cr as damages due to improper construction leading to demolitions, INR 3 Cr towards penalty for deficiency of services and INR 8 Cr as lost opportunity costs.

It is not the only instance of OYO being hit by lawsuits over unpaid dues, with cases even in the US and other regions where OYO operates. Such cases have been coming up since 2019, where OYO has been pulled into several legal proceedings. Recently, in an Ask Me Anything session with Inc42, OYO chief Agarwal said that the company is working to fix scale-related issues such as disgruntled hotel partners through various steps, but some partners remain dissatisfied despite these measures. In the past, OYO has claimed that hotel partners suing the company are part of isolated incidents and not a coordinated effort.

The post OYO, Founder Ritesh Agarwal Face More Heat Over Unpaid Dues appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce giant Amazon’s Prime Day sales, an annual event for paid subscribers to its Prime service, is believed to have surpassed the daily numbers for the platform’s sale during Diwali last year, sources told Times of India.

The sale, held from August 6-7, reportedly saw products worth $600 Mn being sold on the website as demand for products revived after the Covid-19 induced lockdown, with most customers still at home due to continued fears of the pandemic.

“Prime Day 2020 was the biggest 48 hours ever for small and medium sellers on Amazon India. We had the highest participation of nearly 1 lakh sellers, who received orders from 97% of India’s pin codes,” Amazon India head Amit Agarwal told TOI. Among the top-grossing categories were electronics, smartphones and small and large appliances. 

Further, in an interview to Economic Times, Agarwal claimed that while 4,000 small sellers recorded sales of more than INR 10 lakh ($1 Mn), 209 sellers became crorepatis ($10 Mn). Amazon India claims to have 91,000 small and medium sellers on the platform this year.

Back in May, when lockdown restrictions across parts of India were first eased and ecommerce deliveries for non-essential items were permitted, many companies saw what they felt was pent-up demand. However, three months on and the demand is still going strong. 

As of June, the Indian ecommerce sector had recovered 90% of its pre-lockdown volume according to SaaS e-commerce platform Unicommerce. While the recovery had largely been led by electronic products, the fashion sector had also recovered 70% of its pre-lockdown volume of sales. 

Sources have confirmed to TOI that the sales on Prime Day were also dominated by electronics, as people gathered essentials for their work-from-home (WFH) and online school and college classes routines mandated by the pandemic. 

Ahead of its Prime Day sale, Amazon in a press statement had said that the two-day event would see 300 new product launches from top brands like Samsung, Intel, Fabindia, Dabur, Voltas, Godrej, Jabra, Titan, Max Fashion, JBL, Whirlpool, Philips, Bajaj, Usha, Decathlon, Hero Cycles, Eureka Forbes, Sleepwell, L’Oréal Paris, OnePlus, IFB, Microsoft Xbox, Adidas, Xiaomi, Boat, Borosil, Milton and more. 

Small Sellers On Prime Day

Users could also leverage their Alexa devices to know the updates through voice commands, and could also discover the stories of  Indian small businesses by simply saying, “Alexa, tell me an Amazon seller story”. Further, nearly 100 small and medium businesses and startups from Amazon’s Launchpad programme launched over 1,000 new products across 17 categories on Prime Day.  Prime Day in India saw artisans and women entrepreneurs from ‘Karigar’ and ‘Saheli’ offer deals on handmade products from Tribes India, Blue pottery by Aditya Blue Pottery and Jewelry from Giva, among others.

US-based market research company Forrester Research has noted that the Indian ecommerce segment is expected to grow by 6%, amounting to $35.5 Bn this year.

Amazon’s ‘Exclusive’ Deals

Meanwhile, an Inc42 report from last month noted how the company may be indulging in unfair trade practices and bending foreign direct investment (FDI) rules to drive up the demand for exclusive deals during its Prime Day sales. 

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus, which launched its new products during the Prime Day sale on Amazon. Reportedly, the company had already asked all its etailers and offline sellers to hold off the sale of its products. These products were only available on Amazon, and not even on OnePlus’ official website. Even All India Mobile Retailers’ Association (AIMRA) and Organised Retailers Association wrote to the company condemning this move.

The post Amazon Witnesses Bumper Prime Day Sales Worth $600 Mn As Demand Revives appeared first on Inc42 Media.

South Korean multinational electronics company LG Electronics, through its India arm, has set up an online storefront to boost sales in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company-owned online store has been set up using the retail foreign direct investment (FDI) in the automatic route for single-brand companies and manufacturers. 

While the online store will focus on premium-end products with 150 models right now, it will eventually sell 60-70% of its portfolio online. 

“The entire buying process will be run and controlled by LG and we have tied up with logistic companies for last-mile delivery from our warehouse. Online sales for us have grown by 100% by value in the last one year while it has been 30-35% for the industry,” LG India head Deepak Taneja told Economic Times. 

While assuring that the online store would have no exclusive deals or differentiated prices, Taneja added that in due course of time, the company may introduce membership offers which the company has in other markets such as the US. 

LG Electronics is India’s second-largest manufacturer of televisions, after its compatriot Samsung, with a 25% market share. However, in smartphones, LG’s market share is minuscule, at 0.5%. The company has two manufacturing units in India, in Greater Noida and in Pune. 

The company’s entry in India’s ecommerce sector comes at a time when sales are continually picking up, with customers preferring online shopping amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Growing Demand In Indian Ecommerce Amid Pandemic

Back in May, when lockdown restrictions across parts of India were first eased and ecommerce deliveries for non-essential items were permitted, many companies saw what they felt was pent-up demand. However, three months on and the demand is still going strong. 

As of June, the Indian ecommerce sector had recovered 90% of its pre-lockdown volume according to SaaS e-commerce platform Unicommerce. While the recovery had largely been led by electronic products, the fashion sector had also recovered 70% of its pre-lockdown volume of sales.

Moreover, the demand in India’s ecommerce sector is being chiefly led by electronics and smartphones, with customers looking to buy products which would help them as they work from home or attend school or college classes online. 

Amazon India’s Prime Day sales from August 6-7 saw electronics, smartphones and small and large appliances drive up demand, with products worth $600 Mn reportedly being sold during the two-day sale. 

According to US-based market research company Forrester Research, the Indian ecommerce sector is expected to grow by 6%, amounting to $35.5 Bn this year.

The post LG To Open Online Store In India Amid Growing Demand appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The sixth sitting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill held on Monday (August 10) saw key issues brought to the fore by law firm Luthra and Luthra and Foundation of Data Protection Professionals in India, who were invited to air their views.

The meeting on Monday discussed the crucial issue of children’s privacy rights and how anonymisation can preserve privacy rights, reported Medianama.

Law firm Luthra and Luthra Law and Foundation proposed that a rigid age of consent for children was not a fail-safe way to decide on children’s consent. They proposed creating a graded approach to children’s age of consent depending on the services in questions. Currently, the Bill defines a child as someone under 18 years of age.

At the meeting, Luthra and Luthra argued that broad definitions widen the scope of the Bill, limiting the freedom of business tasks, reported Indian Express.

Citing an example, Luthra and Luthra are learned to have argued that without sufficient guidelines, denial of credit or loan to an applicant based on credit scoring may be considered a ‘harm’ under the PDP bill. It also raised concerns regarding the definition of sensitive personal data, stating that words such as “behavioural characteristics” and “facial images” could put actions such as targeted advertisements and CCTV footage under the gamut of the bill, leading to an increase in compliance burden.

Meanwhile, another presentation from the Foundation of Data Protection Professionals in India stated that the bill yielded to the pressure of the industry and can lead to abuse of powers by the government, reported Medianama. It also said expressed concerns about the independence of the Data Protection Authority, pointing out that it would be appointed by a committee of Cabinet Secretary and Ministry Secretaries and not the Chief Justice.

Ongoing Consultations

On Tuesday (August 11), the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) is to make a presentation before the committee. Facebook was initially scheduled to depose before the JPC but the schedule was revised to replace it with FDPPI instead. The reasons for it are currently unclear.

Data Protection Authority

The PDP Bill also proposes the establishment of a Data Protection Authority to monitor violations of norms and keeping an eye on incidents of data theft, privacy breaches, among others.

The bill also mandates various penalties for violations of norms and incidents of data theft and illegal processing. For violation of certain proposed norms, the bill mandates a penalty of INR 5 Cr or 2% of global turnover, whichever is higher, while for data leakage or illegal processing, it stipulates the highest penalty of INR 15 Cr or 4% of the turnover.

Moreover, for serious incidents of data breaches or privacy violations, the bill even proposes arrest and jail terms for senior officials from the top management of the violating company which might extend up to three years.

The post Joint Parliamentary Panel On PDP Bill Discuss Children’s Privacy Rights   appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last Saturday (August 8), Zomato announced that all women and transgender employees would get 10 “period leaves” in a year. While this is a welcome move in many ways, there are also questions about the expectations being set by Zomato for the rest of the market. 

Menstruation is a big taboo in India, and we definitely need to talk about it. But, are separate menstrual leaves the right way to do this? A report by Slate argues that companies should set up a gender-neutral sick leave policy that accounts for enough days-off for menstruating employees, instead of separately labelling it as “period leave” which could cause unnecessary prying into women’s lives.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal also acknowledged the possibility of harassment and said, “In case women face any unnecessary harassment or distasteful comments from men or women about the fact that they applied for a period leave they can report it to company’s prevention of sexual harassment (POSH) team.”

In terms of creating an inclusive and gender-sensitive workplace, dedicated menstrual leaves are a progressive move, but how will the large-scale application of this policy impact the status of women in the workforce and gender pay gap?

The Side-Effects Of Period Leaves? 

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 has ranked Indian 112 out of 153 countries, on the global gender gap index. Can a separate period leave policy further increase this gap and even invoke human resource professionals to ask questions about the menstrual cycle in the interviews? Would companies and recruiters think twice about offering jobs to women if such leave were made mandatory across the industry? 

In March 2020, a Local Circles survey found that 49% surveyed startups and SMEs (8,500) hired fewer or no women employees in the last 12 months, due to the financial strain of extending 26 weeks paid maternity leaves. Similarly, separate period leaves could become the reason for startups’ preferring to hire men over women. 

On the other hand, SHEROES CEO Sairee Chahal said that stigmatising period leave is a misguided step and stems from the fact that since the industrial revolution, workplaces have been designed for male employees. “It’s time we redesigned them to accommodate all profiles of people, so we get the best talent to work,” she added. 

Up to 70% of the workforce at SHEROES are women and they are eligible to take one day of period leave per month aside from existing leave quotas. 

There are other examples of startups treating such period-related leaves on a case-by-case basis without issuing a blanket policy. But in other countries, companies don’t have such an option. For instance, In Japan, where menstrual leaves have been a legal right since 1947, women are reported to have a fear of “social stigma” leading them to request regular sick leaves instead of menstrual leaves. As they fear menstrual leaves will attract negative attention from male coworkers.  

Further, there are examples of Indonesian companies who have reportedly asked women to “drop their pants and prove that they are menstruating” to claim their two-days of menstruation leave as mandated by the country’s law. Eventually, causing many women to forgo their legal right. 

The Question Of Pain And Who Gets To Decide

“These [Period] leaves should only be availed if you are really unable to attend to work. Do not abuse these leaves or use them as a crutch to take time out for other pending tasks ” said Zomato’s Goyal in an internal email. 

But, who decides whether someone’s pain is bearable or not? Can this policy guarantee that Zomato employees won’t be second-guessed on their period leave requests? 

SHEROES Chahal noted that often women end up feigning “stomach aches” because workplaces are not considered safe enough for full disclosure. “We see many such conversations on SHEROES, and there’s a need to generate much awareness around these to facilitate a change in mindsets, from employers to employees,” she added.  

It’s no secret that women have been taking time off during their menstrual cycles. Whether we make it official or not, women are going to take these personal days off, the question is should they need to share ‘why’ they are taking these leaves.

As Gloria Steinem once wrote in her essay, If Men Could Menstruate, “Whatever a superior group has will be used to justify its superiority, and whatever an inferior group has will be used to justify its plight. Black men were given poorly paid jobs because they were said to be stronger than white men, while all women were relegated to poorly paid jobs because they were said to be weaker.”

There is no clear answer, of course. But the point is to talk and discuss and find a solution. After Zomato’s announcement, many argued that startup HR and employee policies need to address these issues in a more head-on fashion. Last year, for example, a slew of startups began offering medical benefits under the family cover plan for LGBTQ+ employees and their partners as permissible under the law. Is it time, other more evolved policies come into the picture to help India’s technology talent make the best out of their workplaces?

The post Zomato Revives The ‘Period Leave’ Debate But Will It Worsen Gender Diversity? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

More than a month after the ban on 59 Chinese apps by the Indian government, including on ByteDance-owned TikTok, the chart for growth of alternative apps in India since the ban offers some real insights. 

New applications launched by existing internet companies in the wake of the ban seem to have performed better, having been consistently ranked in the top 10 on the Google Play Store charts. MX TakaTak, the short video sharing application launched by Times Internet-owned MX Media, is ranked number two in the ‘top free’ chart for all apps. The app was launched on July 9. Its competitors from Indian companies, namely Moj (ShareChat) and Josh (DailyHunt) are ranked number seven and three respectively. While Moj was launched on June 29, Josh was launched on July 4. 

On the other hand, apps such as Mitron and Chingari, which gained significant traction in the immediate aftermath of the ban owing to their ‘Made in India’ tags, seem to have fallen by the wayside. While Chingari is hovering around the top 300 mark, Mitron is no longer ranked within the top 500 apps. 

According to an earlier Inc42 report based on app analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates, Roposo, Zili and Dubsmash were the biggest gainers in India since the ban on TikTok, with the three apps collectively seeing 21.8 Mn downloads in the three weeks since the ban, a growth of 155% when compared to three weeks before the ban. Of all the alternatives to TikTok in India, the three have the most downloads on India’s Play Store and iOS App Store. Roposo leads with around 71 Mn all-time installs, followed by Zili at 51 Mn, and Dubsmash at 30.4 Mn. 

According to the current charts, while Roposo is ranked within the top 30, Zili, which is owned by Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi, is ranked within the top 20. US-based Dubsmash is ranked outside the top 500. Despite the growing anti-China sentiment in the country, Zili saw its downloads increase by 167% in three weeks since the ban, from 3 Mn to 8 Mn, compared to the period before. 

The growth of TikTok alternatives in India now has a parallel, with the US witnessing a similar growth in downloads for homegrown applications, just as talks of an impending ban on the ByteDance-owned Chinese application in the country gather steam. 

Speculations are also rife about Microsoft buying out TikTok’s US business, as well as those in other markets including India, where the app was banned along with 58 other Chinese apps on June 29 as part of sweeping action against data privacy. In light of the uncertainty around TikTok’s future in the US, alternative apps such as Triller, Zynn, Dubsmash and Byte have been the biggest gainers, collectively accounting for nearly 1.7 Mn installs in the week of July 27, after the White House threatened to ban TikTok in the country. The apps collectively saw a growth of 361% in downloads from the previous week, when they had 316,000 installs on aggregate. 

TikTok’s ban is likely to keep the short video sharing space exciting for quite a while, with Facebook-owned Instagram also launching similar features with its ‘Reels’ application. Further, YouTube is testing a similar short video sharing feature called ‘Shorts’. The time is ripe for these new applications to make an entry in the Indian market, while TikTok — which once enjoyed 120 Mn active monthly users in the country — remains embroiled in a tussle which has assumed nationalist overtones and is unlikely to get settled anytime soon.

The post MX TakaTak, Josh & Moj Rule India Charts After TikTok Exit appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules 2020 attempts to combine the teeth of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Indian exchange control laws (IEC Regulations) and the Information Technology Act 2000, to ensure fair play in technology and data-driven ecommerce environment.

Scope

The rules regulate every person involved in a transaction of buying and selling goods and services over the digital or electronic networks including marketplace ecommerce entities, inventory-based ecommerce entities and single brand or multi-brand etailers (except individual sellers).

Beyond Territorial Limits

The rules seek to regulate any office/branch/agency ‘outside India’ owned or controlled ‘by a person residing in India’. This means any Indian entity operating an ecommerce platform outside India will also have to comply with these Rules (in addition to the laws of the country from where it operates such eplatform).

Also, the Rules apply to ecommerce entities systematically offering goods and services to consumers in India without having any formal presence in India. This would bring any overseas-based ecommerce entity regularly catering to consumers in India within the purview of these Rules.

LLPs

Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) have not been included as identified corporate structures for ecommerce entities under the rules. As such, this does not clarify the fate of ecommerce entities structured as LLPs.

Key To-Dos

Until now, only the IEC Regulations had notable conditionalities which were to be complied with by ecommerce entities having foreign direct investments. These conditionalities primarily related to the creation of a level playing field for sellers, limited role of marketplace entities, customer satisfaction and post-sales obligations of sellers. However, with the advent of these Rules, the game plan for all ecommerce entities (and not only those having foreign investments) will have to change. Set out below are the key obligations of marketplace and inventory-based ecommerce entities:

• Customer consent: To explicitly record customer consent through affirmative action.
• No manipulation: To not manipulate the price of the goods or services offered on the platform, to not adopt unfair trade practices and to not discriminate between consumers of the same class.
• Grievance redressal: To appoint an officer (and display their contact details) to acknowledge grievances and promptly dispose of them within the prescribed timelines. Also, to establish a ticketing mechanism for tracking of complaints.
• Displaying important information on the platform: To display: (i) its legal name, headquarters, branch addresses, contact details and website details on the e-platform; (ii) the name and details of the seller including entity status, address and customer care number; and (iii) details relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, available payment methods, the security of payment methods, any fees or charges payable by users, the procedure to cancel regular payments, charge-back options, etc. This also includes explaining the parameters which are significant in the ranking of goods or sellers on its platform, and their importance.
• Seller undertakings: To obtain an undertaking affirming the accuracy of descriptions, images and other content of the goods or services on the platform, including that they correspond directly with its appearance, nature, quality and purpose.
• Levy of cancellation charges: To not impose cancellation charges on customers post order, unless the ecommerce entity is willing to bear similar charges for cancellation by them.
• Records: To identify sellers who sell counterfeit goods and who have violated intellectual property laws and information technology regulations and maintain records thereof.
• Disclosure of special treatment: Marketplace e-commerce entities to include in its terms and conditions, the terms generally governing its relationship with sellers on its platform and a description of any differentiated treatment which it gives or might give between goods or services or sellers of the same category.
• No false reviews: Inventory based e-commerce entities to not falsely represent themselves as consumers and post reviews about goods and services or misrepresent the quality or the features of any goods or services.
• Others for Inventory based model: Inventory based ecommerce entities to (i) display the total price along with breakup price of compulsory and voluntary charges; (ii) ensure honest advertisements consistent with actual characteristics, access and usage conditions; and (iii) implement fair conditions for return and refund.

For completeness, set out below are the key corresponding obligations of sellers on a marketplace ecommerce platform:

• Prior written contract: To execute a written contract with the marketplace e-commerce entity before undertaking any sale or offer to sell on the platform.
• Grievance officer: To appoint an officer (and display their contact details) to acknowledge grievances to and promptly dispose of them within the prescribed timelines.
• Furnishing details to marketplace ecommerce entity: To furnish information such as breakup price of the good or service, legally mandated information (including expiry date), information of the product (including the county of origin), details of importer and guarantees relating to the authenticity of imported products (as applicable), information of shipment, guarantee, warranty, exchange, return, refund, etc. to enable the marketplace ecommerce entity to display the same.

Consequences

Any breach of these Rules attracts penalties under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 which have been enhanced significantly including imprisonment and a monetary penalty of up to fifty lakh rupees.

Conclusion

The rules set out a level playing field for all ecommerce players and are a significant step towards better digital governance. However, its implementation would increase operational expenses for all ecommerce stakeholders including small sellers – the operational detailing would need significant man-hours in addition to costs for platform maintenance and uploading of data on the platform.

[The article is co-authored by Kumar Kartikeya Prakash, Rohan Shrivastava and Akash Srinivasan, Principal Associates at Khaitan & Co.] 

The post Ecommerce Rules 2020: The Road Ahead For Etailers appeared first on Inc42 Media.

When they made a sudden transition to remote work, most CEOs had the same concerns.

Will my teams collaborate with each other as well as they used to in the office?

Will they exchange ideas as fluidly as before?

Will my teams face a lack of productivity because of communication lags?

You may have confidence in your digital tools, but you are just now testing your digital culture. Will it be strong enough to keep up the progress you made in building innovative products?

Innovation happens serendipitously, and many CEOs set up their offices for these collisions to happen naturally. Getting a group of skilled people to gather in an office space and waiting for the magic to happen is the simplest way for organisations to collaborate and innovate.

But what happens in remote work? Employees may choose their own hours, leaving little overlap time. Conversations that would take a shoulder tap and five minutes in the office might take several hours or sometimes days while working remotely. Coffee breaks and brainstorming sessions are less frequent and productive.

Collaboration seemed so natural in an office setting, how can it be done as effortlessly in a remote environment? If you hastily switch to remote work overnight without a clear digital strategy, will the magic of innovation and collaboration disappear?

Innovation Doesn’t Die On Remote Teams

Remote work is not the villain when it comes to innovation. Just because teams are no longer working in the same space, doesn’t mean they can’t collaborate. Organisations like GitHub, Automattic,  Zapier and Stackoverflow are great examples of how entirely remote teams can still be extremely innovative.

In fact, remote work can actually enhance creativity and innovation.

Remote work offers employees the flexibility to choose their own working hours and work in their own comfortable space. This gives them the ability to roam and find answers in unexpected places. As long as they have access to the tools they need to record their thoughts and communicate with team members, remote workers can be primed for innovative thinking wherever they are.

Employees who are introverts often need an isolated space to work and be creative. Remote work brings forth a familiar comfy space with no one watching over the shoulder. Additionally, with online messaging applications, email, and other virtual tools, there is a degree of physical separation that may make them feel safer to express their ideas.

Extroverts who get their energy from being around others are suffering and craving more interaction with others. Sitting in a room by themselves for hours on end sounds more like a prison than productivity. But while the right set of tools and schedule isn’t a perfect replacement, it can be a great holdover until they can get back to being around others.

Success in a remote work setup is reliant on establishing the right digital culture. Your organisational culture has to complement the technology set in place to enable remote work in your organisation. GitLab’s remote manifesto is a perfect example of how to think deeply about digital culture.

An effective remote work strategy is the perfect blend of culture and technology. To ensure that your entire organization adopts the remote-first mindset along with you, you have to focus on developing a work culture that is inclusive of employees irrespective of where they are working from.

Building A Strong Collaborative Digital Culture

While working together in a physical office space, teams interact and collaborate fluidly. A physical office is something everyone is accustomed to and teams know how to function. But when it comes to remote work, you need something more. Some aspects of a physical office need to be rebuilt or at least renovated to fit in the remote work environment.

When employees don’t see each other daily, conversations happen only when absolutely necessary. A mere birthday celebration of a co-worker can build team spirit in the physical office while in remote work, even a birthday celebration requires extra effort. Team bonding has to be consciously built in a remote work setup. If you don’t work on building your digital culture, you will have disconnected teams with no collaboration. Without an effective channel for open communication, all you have is a bunch of skilled people waiting around for work to be assigned to them.

As a leader, here are some concrete ways you can start building a digital culture.

• Create a set of guidelines on how to make the best out of remote work tools,
• Start new traditions and celebrate small achievements virtually.
• Find ways to make employees feel they are a crucial part of the organization.
• Ensure those office meetings and bonding activities keep happening digitally.

For example, when Kissflow started working from home to practice social distancing, work anniversaries were celebrated on our internal collaboration channels with a virtual congratulations card signed by teammates. We still host an all-hands meet weekly, but now everyone logs in from home.

Remote Work — A Combination Of Technology And Culture

Technology and culture go hand in hand to successfully transition to remote work. Each one grows with the other. As you start to establish your culture, you’ll find a tool that fits it. But the tool will also shape your culture.

The transition to remote work is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it will take multiple iterations to get it right. By focusing on both culture and digital tools, you can watch your remote team be even more innovative than ever before!

The post Is Innovation Doomed In A World Of Remote Work? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Global technology company ABB, through its India wing, announced the launch of an online B2B and B2C marketplace in the country to offer more than 6000 products from its electrification business for home and industrial buyers. The company mainly specialises in robotics, power, heavy electrical equipment and automation technology areas. 

The company’s eMart hosts a wide range of products, ranging from digital circuit breakers, contactors, Molded Case Circuit Breaker (MCCB), modular switches, Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB), Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB), home automation, medium voltage relays and related products. 

The company claims that its online marketplace, with a price transparent model, will empower partners to set their own competitive prices for their products on the platform. For consumers, the platform will allow them to gauge the details of the products through product and seller reviews available on the platform, besides interactive images of the product they intend to buy. 

Recently, South Korean multinational electronics company LG Electronics also set up a company-owned online storefront in India to boost sales in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“At ABB, we are committed to creating avenues that fast track the digital transformation journey for our customers and partners. The eMart is another achievement in the same direction, aiming to create a reliable yet distinct customer experience with digital solutions. It aims to build a digital ecosystem and infrastructure between the manufacturer, the partners, and the customers and provide impetus to the business climate and the Digital India program,“ said CP Vyas, president, electrification business, ABB India.

The company added that its eMart comes with the realisation that customers are increasingly preferring to shop online and one-stop access to immediate product requirements are the need of the hour. Tellingly, the realisation isn’t unique to ABB.

Indian Brands Take D2C Route 

A host of Indian brands as well are going direct to consumer way (D2C). Consumer brands are not only skipping the third-party retailers and distributors by going direct-to-consumer (D2C), they are looking at offering authentic brand experiences. The direct feedback and customer knowledge gained through the D2C model throws at them the opportunity to develop a strong brand narrative, build brand value, improve conversion rate and repeat purchase and forge long-term relationships with customers to create brand loyalty. The focus on creating a strong brand narrative as well as a lasting connect with the customers sees these brands utilise strategies such as influencer marketing, cause marketing and visual marketing, beyond the usual advertising and marketing strategies.

According to DataLabs By Inc42+, the average revenue surge of 11 prominent and funded D2C startups in India including Ustraa, The Man Company, Yoga Bar, NUA, The Moms Co and others between 2018 and 2019 was 213%, whereas the expense surge during the same period was 151%.

According to Capgemini April 2020 research of consumer sentiment, most of the Indian consumers’ appetite for online shopping is expected to increase from 46% in the current scenario to 64% over the next six to nine months. And investors too are bracing for the D2C boom. D2C brands that have solved the supply chain hurdle and set up robust manufacturing while also identifying a sustainable rate of scaling-up are best positioned to advance further into the next phase.

The post ABB India Launches B2B & B2C eMart With 6000 Electrification Products appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian edtech startup upGrad has raised a debt of INR 50 Cr from IIFL Income Opportunities Fund – Series 2. According to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs accessed by Inc42, the company, on August 7, allotted 500,000 unlisted, secured and redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures at a face value of INR 1,000 each to IIFL Income Opportunities Fund – Series 2.

The IIFL Income Opportunities Fund – Series 2, is owned by IIFL Asset Management Limited, an India-focused global asset management firm, launched with an objective of providing differentiated investment products suited for the market environment.

upGrad, founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli and Ravijot Chugh, focuses on higher education, as well as helping working professionals develop proficiency in the most in-demand technical skills. The company aims to help working professionals and individuals by providing them with university education online through structured programmes and facilities which include courses on deep technology, digital marketing, management, entrepreneurship certification among others. upGrad has over half-a-million users globally, of which 30K are paid learners.

upGrad Revokes Salary Cuts

The debt raise by upGrad comes a month after the company had announced the reinstatement of full salaries for all its employees. Early last month, the company had announced that it would revoke all salary deductions from the second quarter of the financial year 2021, starting July. upGrad, which had announced 30% salary deductions for its employees due to the financial disruption caused by the pandemic, said that it would return 100% of the amount deducted from employees’ salaries, besides announcing work from home (WFH) for all employees till the end of the year. 

upGrad’s cofounder and MD Mayank Kumar said revoking the salary cuts had become possible due to business growth over the last quarter. upGrad previously told Inc42 that it had witnessed a 75% week-on-week increase in traction on the platform in March, while inquiries on the platform had increased by nearly 50%, from 2,500 to 3,800 per day.

Several other edtech startups such as BYJU’S and Toppr have also reported a spike in users during the lockdown, which largely proved beneficial for the Indian edtech sector, as online learning was the only option left for a lot of people looking to upskill or prepare for competitive examinations.

According to SimilarWeb, based on a study of 35 top online learning platforms, the edtech segment saw a 26% increase in user visits between April 2019 to March 2020, as compared to April 2018 – March 2019. Further, the first 28 days of lockdown in India edtech segment saw 128.8 Mn visits (on average, 4.6Mn daily visits) as compared to 102.2 Mn average visits between April 2019 – Feb 2020. 

The post Exclusive: upGrad Raises INR 50 Cr Debt From IIFL Income Opportunities Fund appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Cryptocurrency trading is likely to face stormy weather in India. With the cryptocurrency bill back in the spotlight, a report by Moneycontrol revealed a ‘note’ which pointed out the possibility of ‘cryptocurrency trading ban’ in the country. The report stated that the government has been holding consultation with the law ministry, MeitY and RBI on a framework for a law which could possibly put an end to cryptocurrency trading in India.

With an ongoing over the fate of cryptocurrency in India, scammers too are on the rise. Recently, an Indian investor lost INR 28 Cr ($3.7 Mn) in a Bitcoin wallet scam while another investor lost over $50K after dealing with a fake wallet, as reported by IBTimes.

At the on-set of the Bitcoin surge, it is said that these cryptocurrency scammers targeted people by messaging them on social media groups where they invited them to buy or sell Bitcoin through fake apps. What’s interesting here is, these apps typically would have better prices or trade opportunities that are not found on other platforms. Once an individual buys the Bitcoin on these fake wallets, the scammers disappear and would stop communicating with the unsuspecting victims.

CoinDCX’s founder Sumit Gupta said that these scams will continue to increase given the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the country. He added that some of these scammers are using advanced techniques to attract wealthy investors into parting away with their coins. Therefore, it becomes important for individuals to have knowledge of at least basic online security principles to take care of their cryptocurrencies, he added, and advised investors to do thorough due diligence, and urged them to keep their devices updated and use security solutions on their mobile phones.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) at the time of writing was $11.748.81 with a market cap of $216.85 Bn, compared to last week (August 4, 2020) which stood at $11,277.28, with a market cap of $1208.07 Bn. Throughout the week, Bitcoin’s price has been fluctuating between $11,400 and $11867 price range. On August 10, it finally hit the $12,000 mark.

And #Bitcoin has breached 12k. Great way to start the week!

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) August 10, 2020

Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, was priced at $389.79, with a market cap of $43.7 Bn at the time of writing, compared to last week (August 4, 2020), where the price of the cryptocurrency was $384.83, with a market cap of $43.116 Bn.

Cryptocurrency News Of The Week: 

CoinDCX Launches India’s First Staking Services 

India’s cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX recently launched a simple staking service for its users. With this, CoinDCX will be launching three tokens, namely Tron (TRX), Harmony (ONE), and Qtum (QTUM). The company said that the new staking service will not carry any fees or hidden charges for processing the transactions. Its platform is built to promote retail staking with low minimum balances required to stake. For those unaware, staking is the act of locking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards.

For instance, for five TRX tokens, the minimum balance should be around $0.1, for hundred ONE tokens it should be $1, and for one QTUM ($3) is required with an annual return of 8-10%, 6-10% and 5-10%, respectively.  CoinDCX’s Gupta said that the exchange would pool the staking deposits from customers in a bid to increase their staking rewards while simplifying the staking process. In addition to this, the company said that CoinDCX will measure the optimal reward system by offering staking rewards through their partner exchange, Binance, or directly on the blockchain.

WazirX Partners With Zubi To Make Students Job Ready 

As part of WazirX Education Partners Programme, Binance-backed WazirX recently collaborated with its first education partner Zubi, an edtech startup that upskills engineers, professionals on emerging technologies, as per their career goals. With this, the duo aims to educate freshers and college students the nuances of emerging technology such as blockchain, DLT, AI and machine learning, among others and helps them become industry or job-ready. Zubi claims to offer personalised education along with one-on-one mentorship programmes to students, where it designs courses/programmes as per individual’s goals or needs.

Malta-Based OKEx Launches Peer-To-Peer Crypto Trading Platform In India 

On August 5, Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange platform OKEx announced the launch of a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform in India, where it is allowing users to buy cryptocurrencies with INR and digital payment methods, including UPI, IMPS, NEFT and others, without any transaction fees. In addition to this, the company claimed to offer the lowest price, deepest market, and fastest KYC process.

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: India In The Spotlight Over Cryptocurrency Bill & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

HungerBox, the Bengaluru-based B2B foodtech company, has raised INR 11.67 Cr in funding from existing investors including Paytm parent company One97 Communications Limited, Sabre Partners Trust, Pratithi Investment Trust and Singapore-based individual investor Srihari Kumar.

As per ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company has received the aggregate share subscription amount of of INR 11,67,09,092.22 from the investors towards subscription of their respective Series D1 preference shares (CCPS) with face value of INR 100/- and a premium of Rs. 7,541.03/-per share. The amount has been raised by HungerBox at an enterprise value of INR 148.4 Cr and a equity value of INR 123.44 Cr as per the attached valuation report. The investors have accepted to subscribe to the offer of the Series D1 CCPS in the following manner:

• One97 Communications Limited will receive 10,693 shares at INR 8,17,05,533.79
• Sabre Partners Trust will acquire 1,963 shares for INR 1,49,99,341.89
• Pratithi Investment Trust will acquire 1,309 Rs. 1,00,02,108.27
• Srihari Kumar will acquire 1,309 Rs. 1,00,02,108.27

With this, the company has raised over $18 Mn in funding till date. Previously, the company had raised $12 Mn from Paytm and other investors including NPTK, Sabre Partners and Neoplux in December last year.  In November 2019, HungerBox cofounder Sandipan Mitra said the company was planning to raise $25 Mn in a Series D round of funding over the next six to eight months. He added that the company is looking to get publicly listed as well. “It is my personal ambition that HungerBox goes on to become India’s first food tech company to go public,” he told Inc42 at the time.

Mitra said the company had plans to expand into new geographies in Southeast Asia and to hospitals, educational institutes and multiplexes, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has made it rethink its plans for the future.

Founded in 2016 by Sandipan Mitra and Uttam Kumar, HungerBox aims to revolutionise the corporate cafeterias and food courts. The company’s technology includes pre-ordering, live order tracking, digital payments, feedback management, and cafeteria density tracking. Employees can view the menus provided by enlisted food vendors at their workplace cafeterias or canteens, place orders and track delivery, and also provide ratings and feedback. Its clients include Qualcomm, Microsoft, Accenture, and McKinsey and the company claims to have processed over 50 Mn transactions since inception.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, HungerBox turned its focus to delivering food to the needy. It partnered with BigBasket promoter and Portea Medical founder Ganesh Krishnan and others to launch FeedMyCity and use its kitchens to prepare meals while other employees helped with delivery and supply chain. The startup has consulted with a dietician to develop low-cost high calorific meals at just INR 22 per serving. HungerBox claimed to have supplied food to around 120 centres from its FSSAI-approved kitchen.

The post Exclusive: HungerBox Raises INR 11.97 Cr Funding From One97, Existing Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed a wave of fear across all sections of the consumer market, and it has particularly left the eldery feeling the dread of venturing outside. As the coronavirus is said to be particularly harsh on senior citizens suffering from comorbidities, patients that did not contract Covid-19 had to revisit how to go about their treatment. Unwilling to visit hospitals to undergo treatment for chronic ailments, surgeries, diagnosis and even routine checkups, the situation has revived the oft-ignored healthcare at home segment. 

Private hospitals and healthtech startups have not only had to focus on telemedicine in the past few months, but actually made it their first choice in many instances. However, healthcare at home, which is a segment with deeper roots in the Indian market than telemedicine has often been confined to the sidelines in the healthtech debate. Not anymore as the pandemic has paved the way for greater adoption and deeper penetration of services.

Emergence Of Home Healthcare Market

The home healthcare industry in India was once an unorganised and scattered market, but startups such as Gurugram-based Healthcare at Home India have been trying to organise and digitise it since early 2000s. 

With the advent of more advanced technology for creating products and services, the healthcare at home market has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Following HCAH India, the likes of Portea Medical, Medwell Ventures, Care24, Clic2Clinic, Life Circle, iKure, Mobident and others also ventured into the space. Home healthcare is at an early growth stage in India and contributes around 5% to the healthtech market in 2020. It has shown a growth of CAGR 30.16% during the past decade (2010-2020). 

According to the recent report of DataLabs By Inc42+ on “Healthtech Landscape Post Covid-19”, the home healthcare market is estimated to reach around $837 Mn by 2025. The market will witness a growth of CAGR 20.1% for next five years.

The growth in the market can be attributed to rise in the ageing population, growth in chronic lifestyle  diseases, lack of access to physical clinics and the conventional healthcare infrastructure, affordability of services and increasingly sedentary and isolated lifestyles in the urban context. Moreover, the growing health awareness among consumers in general has also helped drive up the relevance of home healthcare, particularly with the market still under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Significantly, the steady rise in the population aged 65+ is a major indicator that healthcare at home will become a preferred service for a huge section of the population. Plus, the drop in the under-15 population also expands the future potential addressable base.

Did Covid-19 Accelerate Home Healthcare Adoption In India?

Amid the rise in Covid-19 cases in India, with over 2.1 Mn cases or 10% of the global tally, as of August 11, 2020, citizens are concerned about the already-stretched healthcare infrastructure and resources in India. The increasing number of cases that are occupying private hospital beds, make healthcare at home not only more lucrative, but perhaps the only option for many. 

With the number of asymptomatic cases or cases with mild symptoms, there’s a big need for home healthcare services that will free up hospital beds. 

Know More About India’s Healthtech Landscape

The challenges faced by the home healthcare sector in pre Covid-19 times were the cost of enabling the home healthcare services which is not covered by most insurance companies. However, since telemedicine is now under the purview of insurance, home healthcare services are being covered by the likes of Bajaj Allianz and ICICI Lombard General.

Healthcare at Home India has partnered with HDFC Ergo and ICICI Lombard General Insurance during Covid-19. HCAH India CEO Vivek Srivastava told Inc42 that the company has reinvented itself during Covid-19. “We are offering Covid-19 sample pickups, working with corporates for operating employee helpline and helping them restart their factories and set up oxygen facilities in RWAs, in corporates, in guest houses etc.”

 The outbreak of pandemic has flooded the hospitals with Covid-19 patients leaving less room for access to other patients, and even if the healthcare services are available to other patients, people are quite reluctant to go to a hospital due to the fear of Covid-19 in their minds. As a result home healthcare startups have witnessed phenomenal growth during the Covid-19 lockdown. HCAH India witnessed 60% month-on-month growth during the Covid-19 period, claimed Srivastava.

Portea Medical, another major player in the home healthcare sector, claimed that Covid-19 has brought in a growth of 60% some areas and there is a significant surge in the calls for consultation on our telemedicine helpline numbers compared to the pre-Covid days. The startup observed a rise in the demand for services such as chemotherapy and dialysis at home, apart from contactless healthcare for non-critical services such as minor ailments, fever, and health-related queries.

Kolkata-based Tribeca Healthcare launched a range of services during the Covid-19 lockdown such as its Envelope of Care, a personalised service for the elderly with an optimal level of care vs social distance; Dare to Care, a minimal contact delivery of essentials, especially to those elderly people; free counselling over the phone; and Nirbhor, an assisted telemedicine platform. The company set up stethoscopes, pulse oximeters, spirometers and other devices in the homes of elderly before teleconsultations.

Know More About India’s Healthtech Landscape

Not only this, with the buzz around home quarantine and home isolation, many home healthcare startups expanded their services during Covid-19. The startups have either partnered with hospitals or governments to provide home isolation and home quarantine services to people.

Healthcare at Home India partnered with Fortis hospital for their home isolation programme and it also partnered with Delhi and Karnataka Government for home isolation and home quarantine services.

While Portea Medical partnered with the Delhi government for their home isolation programmes, private hospitals also joined the league and have stepped into this sector for home isolation and home treatment for asymptomatic Covid-19 patients. Max Healthcare, Medanta and Fortis Healthcare in Gurugram have begun providing treatment at home to Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.

Apollo Hospitals launched a Covid-19 response plan ‘Project Kavach’ (meaning ‘shield’) that encompasses all aspects from information, screening and assessment, testing, to readying the infrastructure for quarantine and treatment. Apollo has also introduced Stay I @HOME, which is a comprehensive program of medical care and advisory services for COVID-19 patients for 14 days of home quarantine period.

With Telemedicine Diversification, Is Home Healthcare Moving Towards Consolidation?

Covid-19 has brought in opportunities for healthtech sector segments varying from telemedicine, diagnostics, remote health monitoring, sample check ups and home healthcare. Despite the increase in demand from urban centres, telemedicine as a core and standalone model is not majorly prevalent in the Indian market, as we saw in the Inc42+ Playbook on the Healthtech sector. Even core telemedicine players such as Practo, Lybrate, CallHealth, DocsApp, myUpchar and mFine are diversifying their revenue streams to earn steadily and also create a seamless experience for the customer. 

These startups offer services such as physiotherapy, medicine supplies, nursing, weight management and others in addition to telemedicine.

One of the major home healthcare startups, Portea offers telemedicine as a peripheral service since the beginning, however it hasn’t been scaled up.

“After lockdown, teleconsultation was essential. So, we relaunched it and it picked up. That has made us realise this is something very important. So to make it broadbased we have started working with corporates as well”, said Meena Ganesh, CEO & Cofounder of Portea Medical.

Thus, the market is expected to witness the entrance of telemedicine players into home healthcare services along with other services while home healthcare players expanding their services by adding telemedicine, diagnostics, epharmacy and others to their portfolio.

The healthcare market is expected to witness consolidation with few mergers and acquisitions expected coming into the space. All the healthtech players are somewhere or the other converging their services to provide a one stop solution to the people creating a seamless experience for them. 

Healthcare at Home India’s Srivastava also said that the company is looking forward to offering end-to-end healthcare services rather than doing one part of the puzzle. The company expects to offer seamless experience to customers starting from online consultation to fulfilling lab requirements if any and then fulfill service delivery requirements.

Covid-19 has brought a paradigm shift in the healthcare sector. With people adjusting to the new normal of work at home, it is believed healthcare at home will also join the league. 

With the support of government and insurance companies, this sector is expected to grow in the future. Also, due to the reinvention of the home healthcare startups during Covid-19 has brought them in enough spotlight in the eyes of the consumers.

Srivastava added that Covid-19 will bring in a change in the customer behaviour and hence, even post Covid-19, the sector will continue to grow. He mentioned that once the people experience the quality home healthcare services at their own convenience, they will continue with the same even in future.

Know More About India’s Healthtech Landscape

The post How India’s Home Healthcare Startups Are Battling For A Piece Of The $837 Mn Opportunity appeared first on Inc42 Media.

US-based e-book and audiobook platform Scribd has acquired professional content sharing platform SlideShare from LinkedIn at an undisclosed price. 

“Scribd has accumulated a unique collection of user-generated and professional content that we make available to our readers via personalised recommendations, and the addition of presentations from the SlideShare community advances our vision. It allows us to continue diversifying our offering while driving even more readers to the books, audiobooks, magazines, and other professionally published works in our digital library,” said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO of Scribd.

SlideShare, rebranded as LinkedIn SlideShare after acquisition in 2012, was founded by Amit Ranjan, John Wilson, Jonathan Boutelle and Rashmi Sinha in 2012. Following the official announcement of SlideShare’s acquisition by Scribd, one of the cofounders Ranjan wrote on Twitter that SlideShare had become a pale avatar of its former self as LinkedIn had stopped investing in the platform’s growth. Popular professional networking platform LinkedIn was itself acquired by US tech giant Microsoft in 2016. 

“Back in the early days of SlideShare, we used to track Scribd as a strong competitor till the two products veered off in slightly divergent directions – ebooks v/s presentations. Cut out to 2020 the internet is a much bigger playground now, and it offers the opportunity of imagining a combined future that again reshapes digital content in this new age,” Ranjan wrote on Twitter. 

In a jibe aimed at LinkedIn, Ranjan said that the company’s record as an acquirer was now “severely jolted. In hindsight, they couldn’t “get” the social nature of SlideShare’s content community. It wouldn’t be a stretch to compare them to Yahoo on the M&A front (think Flickr, Tumblr)!”

SlideShare’s archive of presentations and other content would continue to be live on Slideshare.net. Further, users looking to upload presentations on SlideShare won’t need to be Scribd subscribers. Scribd offers a Netflix-like subscription service e-books and audiobooks on its platform. Scribd is priced at INR 199/month for Indian users. 

The post Scribd Acquires Professional Content Sharing Platform SlideShare From Linkedin appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce giant Flipkart is estimated to have posted INR 2,600-2,700 Cr in gross merchandise value (GMV) during its five-day Big Savings Day sale, from August 6-10, 2020, sources in the know of things told Economic Times. 

GMV is the total value of merchandise sold over a period of time, excluding discounts and returns. 

Flipkart’s Big Savings Day sale happened in the same period as Amazon’s Prime Day sale. However, the latter’s was two days long, from August 6-7. According to market research company Forrester Research, Amazon is said to have posted a GMV of around INR 3,700 Cr during its Prime Day sale. 

In a blog post, Amazon claimed that its Prime Day sale had proved to be the biggest-ever for small and medium businesses (SMBs) on the platform. The company claimed that of the 91,000 small sellers on the platform, 31,000 witnessed their highest sales ever, while more than 4000 SMB sellers registered sales of INR 10 lakhs or more, and 209 SMB sellers becoming crorepatis during the 48 hours. 

Both ecommerce platforms are said to have witnessed a strong demand, led by electronics, smartphones, and small and large appliances. 

Indian Ecommerce Recovers Post Lockdown

Back in May, when lockdown restrictions across parts of India were first eased, and ecommerce deliveries for non-essential items were permitted, many companies saw what they felt was pent-up demand. However, three months on and the market is still going strong. 

As of June, the Indian ecommerce sector had recovered 90% of its pre-lockdown volume according to SaaS e-commerce platform Unicommerce. While electronic products had mainly led the recovery, the fashion sector had also recovered 70% of its pre-lockdown amount of sales.

Forrester Research has noted that the Indian ecommerce segment is expected to grow by 6%, amounting to $35.5 Bn this year.

Flipkart Hikes Commissions From Sellers

Meanwhile, an Inc42 report from June highlighted that Flipkart was planning to hike the commissions it charged from sellers, as the company witnessed increased demand for non-essentials in the post-lockdown period. With the hike in commissions across product categories, it was reported that the sellers might have to either raise prices of their products or incur losses, either way, benefiting Flipkart in terms of its GMV or burn.

Reportedly, commissions for products would be increased in components such as local shipping charges. 

A spokesperson for the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) had said, “The price hikes by Flipkart need to be rolled back, and they should instead reduce their fees for sellers to survive while giving the best benefits to consumers. With the revised fees, the sellers will be forced to increase prices by 5-7%, depending on category and selling price.”

A Flipkart spokesperson had told Inc42 that it was working with lakhs of sellers so they could resume operations. “We regularly revise our commissions and shipping rate cards based on business metrics and this is a periodic exercise.”

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